The SCP Summer Premier Auction

Published

9 years ago

September 4, 2014

August 23 was the final day of bidding for SCP’s “Summer Premier Auction.”

SCP Auctions was founded in 1979 and is one of the largest auctioneers and private sellers of sports memorabilia and cards in the United States. Its past sales have included:

* A T206 Honus Wagner tobacco card graded PSA NM-MT 8 – $2,800,000

* A Babe Ruth game-worn (circa 1920) road jersey – $4,415,000

* The bat (later signed by Ruth) that Babe Ruth used on April 18, 1923, to hit the first home run in Yankee Stadium – $1,265,000

* The contract for the sale of Babe Ruth from the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees – $996,000

* The ball hit by Barry Bonds for career home run #756, breaking Hank Aaron’s all-time home run record – $752,467

Where the sweet science is concerned, SCP auctioned off “The Angelo Dundee Collection” of boxing memorabilia in November 2012 for more than $1,300,000. Two pairs of gloves worn by Cassius Clay / later Muhammad Ali in his first fight against Sonny Liston and his first fight against Joe Frazier sold for $385,848 each.

That brings us to SCP’s 2014 Summer Premier Auction. Fifty-nine boxing-related items were on the block. Some of them are cause for concern.

Let’s start with the following as described by SCP in its auction catalog:

* Lot #114: “WILLIE PEP’S 1940’S TRAINING WORN GLOVES AND EVERLAST HEAD GEAR”

* Lot #112: “C.1942 WILLIE PEP FIGHT WORN EVERLAST BOXING GLOVES”

* Lot #115: “NOVEMBER 6, 1957 ALPHONSE HALIMI FIGHT WORN BEN LEE BOXING GLOVES – 15 ROUND DECISION VS. RATON MACIAS”

* Lot #95: “C.1910 JIM JEFFRIES FIGHT WORN EVERLAST BOXING SHOES”

Craig Hamilton is the foremost boxing memorabilia dealer in the Unted States. Over the years, he has been retained by Sotheby’s, Christie’s, Heritage, and numerous other auction houses to document and authenticate memorabilia prior to auction.

This writer reached out to Hamilton, who had this to say about the items listed above:

* [Lot #114, which sold for $720] “The Everlast label on the head gear has an ‘R’ with a circle around it to protect the Everlast trademark. Everlast didn’t add that ‘R’ to its headgear until 1966. That means the headgear couldn’t possibly have been worn by Pep in the 1940s.”

* [Lot #112, which sold for $1,320] “These gloves were made by Everlast and stamped ‘24 14,’ which indicates that they’re 14-ounce gloves. Pep wore 6-ounce gloves in fights.”

* [Lot #115, which sold for $1,253] “This was a tough fifteen-round fight. The gloves Halimi wore were heavily taped above the label, which is shown in the pictures that SCP has on its website. Anybody who knows anything about boxing memorabilia and stopped to think about it would know that these aren’t the gloves Halimi wore in that fight. The real gloves would show some tape residue or leather-surface removal after fifteen rounds of sweat and the like.”

* [Lot #95, which sold for $1,200]: “These are supposed to be fight-worn Jim Jeffries boxing shoes that have an Everlast label inside them. Initially, SCP described them as being ‘circa 1900.’ Then it learned that Everlast didn’t come into existence until 1910, so it added an addendum to the catalog saying that the shoes were ‘circa 1910.’ The problem with that is, Everlast didn’t make boxing equipment in 1910. They started making it in 1917, long after Jeffries’ career was over.”

There’s more.

Lot #102 purports to be a “C.1926 GENE TUNNEY ‘THE FIGHTING MARINE’ FIGHT WORN BOXING ROBE.” It sold for $15,052.

“How do they know that Tunney wore this robe in a fight?” Hamilton asks. “Over the years, I’ve looked at every film of Gene Tunney in the ring that I could find. I have 200-to-300 photos of Tunney in the ring before and after fights. And I’ve I never seen him standing in the ring wearing a robe. Every image I’ve seen shows him wearing a towel over his shoulders, not a robe.”

“And I have problems with some of the other items,” Hamilton continues. “Lots 100 and 101 purport to be the gloves that Jack Dempsey wore in his 1918 fight against Fred Fulton and his 1927 fight against Jack Sharkey. They’re autographed by Dempsey. The first pair sold for $18,840; the second pair for $22,796. I don’t question that the handwriting is Dempsey’s. But Dempsey was a prolific giver-away of boxing memorabilia that wasn’t what he said it was. He’d give something to someone and tell them it was something that it wasn’t to make them feel good.”

Each of the auction items referenced above came with a Letter of Provenance stating that it had been in the “Helms Athletic Foundation/LA84 Collection.” The Helms Athletic Foundation was created in 1936 and went through several incarnations before being dissolved and its holdings absorbed into the Amateur Athletic Foundation (renamed the LA84 Foundation in 2007).

“Just because these pieces were in something called the Helms Athletic Foundation collection doesn’t mean that they’re real,” Hamilton says. “There’s no indication that experts were used to authenticate any of the boxing items in the collection with the exception of PSA/DNA for autographs. Did these guys look at old fight films? Did they look at old photos? Did they weigh the gloves or contact Everlast? Essentially, they’re saying that, because these items came from the Helms Athletic Foundation, that authenticates them. This is an old auction practice, but it doesn’t cut it today. There are several items in the auction that can’t possibly be what SCP says they are. So what does that say about the other items in the auction? I’m sure that most of them are authentic, but I would speculate that some aren’t.”

SCP vice president Dan Imler acknowledged to this writer that SCP didn’t hire an outside expert to authenticate the boxing memorabilia in its 2014 Summer Premier Auction.

“That’s something we do on a case by case basis,” Imler said. “Here, we didn’t think it was necessary because we relied on the Helms archives and its records for authentication. We take authentication very seriously, but we’re not perfect. If there are problems, we’ll notify the purchasers and make whatever corrections need to be made.”

Meanwhile, Hamilton has no plans to pursue the matter. “I’m not the auction police,” he says. “But I hate it when stuff like this happens.”

One might add that SCP isn’t some hustler selling phony memorabilia on eBay, where the prevailing ethos is “buyer beware.” To quote the SCP website, “SCP Auctions, one of the nation’s largest auctioneers and private sellers of important sports memorabilia and cards, is a leader in the industry.”

Thomas Hauser can be reached by email at thauser@rcn.com. His next book – Thomas Hauser on Boxing – will be published shortly by the University of Arkansas Press.

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Thomas Hauser

Thomas Hauser is the author of 52 books. In 2005, he was honored by the Boxing Writers Association of America, which bestowed the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism upon him. He was the first Internet writer ever to receive that award. In 2019, Hauser was chosen for boxing's highest honor: induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Lennox Lewis has observed, “A hundred years from now, if people want to learn about boxing in this era, they’ll read Thomas Hauser.”

Broner UD 10 Hutchinson in Miami; Izmailov UD 10 Foster at Turning Stone

Published

10 hours ago

June 9, 2023

Arne K. Lang

Broner UD 10 Hutchinson in Miami; Izmailov UD 10 Foster at Turning Stone

Boxing cards in Miami and in Verona, New York, competed for eyeballs on Friday night. Neither card produced much in the way of fireworks.

The main go of the Miami event, a Don King promotion, was dismal. Perpetual under-achiever Adrien Broner delivered another clinker while pitching a near-shutout over gallant but overmatched Bill Hutchinson.

Yes, that sounds like a contradiction in terms, but Broner was matched very soft and it did not reflect well of him that Hutchinson was never off his feet and still standing at the final bell. The judges had it 100-90 and 99-91 twice.

Broner (35-4-1, 24 KOs) seemed content to get in 10 rounds of sparring in his return to the ring after a 27-month absence. The intrepid Hutchinson, a 34-year-old attorney from Pittsburgh who hadn’t previously fought beyond eight rounds, fell to 20-3-4 and will be able to boast that he stayed the limit against an opponent who was a title-holder in four weight classes.

Other Bouts of Note

In a 10-round light heavyweight affair with a pair of regional belts at stake, Ahmed Elbiali won a unanimous but paper-thin decision over Laredo, Texas campaigner Rodolfo Gomez Jr. All three judges awarded Elbiali six of the 10 rounds which translated to 95-94 scores factoring in a point deduction for low blows.

A local Miami man but born in Egypt, Elbiali won his seventh straight to improve his record to 23-1 (18). However, this was a messy fight marred by excessive clinching and Elbiali, 32, did nothing to suggest that he could hold his own with the top dogs in his weight class. Gomez declined to 14-7-3 but maintained his distinction of having never been stopped.

In a bantamweight contest slated for “10,” Guillermo Rigondeaux (22-3, 15 KOs) scored his second straight knockout, knocking defensive-oriented Charlie Clemente-Andino down for the count with a straight left to the belly in the seventh round. The 42-year-old southpaw, a former two division world title-holder and one of the most decorated amateurs of his generation, had the best of every round before bringing the bout to its sudden conclusion. Puerto Rico’s Clemente-Andino came in undefeated (12-0), but had been out of the ring for seven years. He filled the breach when Argentine veteran Julian Aristule pulled out, purportedly because of visa problems.

TURNING STONE

“ShoBox: The New Generation” was at the Turning Stone Casino Resort in Verona, New York, with a show held in conjunction with Induction Weekend at the nearby International Boxing Hall of Fame and Museum. The lead promoter, Dmitry Salita, left a happy man when his fighter, light heavyweight Ali Izmailov, won the featured bout. Izmailov, who improved to 11-0 (7) won a unanimous decision over previously undefeated Charles Foster (22-1). Foster was fighting an uphill battle after hitting the deck near the end of round five. The judges had it 95-94 and 96-93 twice.

A 30-year-old Russian who trains in Michigan and Florida, Izmailov came in ranked number 11 by the WBO. He will need some help to move up a notch, however, as his showing wasn’t particularly impressive.

The other TV bouts were also light heavyweight affairs.

Co-Feature

In a battle of southpaws in which the competitors traded knockdowns, Colombia’s Juan Carrillo advanced to 11-0 (8) with a majority decision over Washington’s Richard Vansiclen (13-1-1). Carrillo put Vansiclen on the canvas early in round three with a right hook. Vansiclen wasn’t badly hurt and he returned the favor in the next round just when it seemed that the Colombian was on the verge of scoring a TKO. It was a good back-and-forth fight from that point on. Two of the judges favored Carrillo by 95-93 scores with the other scoring it a draw (94-94).

Also

In the TV opener, Australian import Clay Waterman, making his U.S. debut, advanced to 11-0 (8) with a unanimous 8-round decision over Kenmon Evans (10-1-1). The judges had it 77-75 and 78-74 twice. Evans, a 31-year-old Floridian promoted by 2020 IBHOF inductee Christy Martin, had won eight straight heading in.

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 239: Mexican Boxing Stars in SoCal’s Inland Empire

Published

24 hours ago

June 9, 2023

David A. Avila

Avila-Perspective-Chap-230-Mexican-Boxing-Stars-in-SoCal's-Inland-Empire

Mexican style prizefighting arrives in the Inland Empire with undefeated burgeoning middleweight star Jaime Munguia and female boxing legend Mariana “Barbie” Juarez this weekend.

Both have their legion of fans. Both are in dangerous fights.

Munguia (41-0, 33 KOs) faces a tough test in Ukraine’s Sergiy Derevyanchenko (14-4, 10 KOs) and former three-division world champion Juarez (55-12-4, 19 KOs) has an equally tough match in tiny but powerful Mayeli Flores (9-1-1). Both will be fighting at the Toyota Arena in Ontario, CA on Saturday, June 10. DAZN will stream the Golden Boy Promotions card.

And to add local luster Pomona’s Shane Mosley Jr. (19-4) has been added. The super middleweight has been impressive in his rise to contention. He also has a rough foe in D’Mitrius Ballard (21-1-1).

It’s an interesting card mostly because the two Mexican stars are not guaranteed wins on Saturday. Munguia faces a very tough and experienced fighter who has traded blows with several of the best fighters today.

“He has a lot of experience,” says Munguia about his next foe. “Without a doubt the hardest fight of my career.”

While Derevyanchenko has fought Gennady Golovkin, Daniel Jacobs and Jermall Charlo, the Mexican fighter has only faced Gabe Rosado, Dennis Hogan and Liam Smith. All are worthy opponents but not as dangerous as the Ukrainian.

“I think he has the experience with 41 fights,” said Derevyanchenko. “We will see.”

One way or the other Munguia expects people to sit up and notice both fighters after they clash on Saturday.

“There’s going to be a lot of punches thrown and a lot of emotion,” Munguia predicts.

Hall of Fame boxer Bernard Hopkins (pictured between the two gladiators) predicts big things for the winner.

“I know from my experience these are champions brewing and these are legends coming,” Hopkins said.

Five years ago, Munguia almost fought Golovkin but it was nixed by the Nevada State Athletic Commission because of the Mexican fighter’s young age and lack of experience. Instead, Munguia was matched against Sadam Ali in New York and promptly knocked out the WBO super welterweight titlist.

Munguia has out-grown the super welterweight division and now fights at or above 160 pounds.

“Everyone wanted to see Jaime in a battle like this one,” said Fernando Beltran of Zanfer Promotions.

Barbie

Mariana “Barbie” Juarez, 43, has been fighting since the 1990s and was largely helpful in making women’s boxing legal in Mexico.

You read that correctly.

Before the early 2000s women’s boxing was illegal in Mexico so fighters like Juarez and Ana Maria Torres fought underground and mostly against each other. Early on Mexican-style fighting was established by women like Juarez, Torres and others.

Juarez made boxing history when she fought in front of the largest recorded crowd of more than 500,000 people at the Zocalo in Mexico City in April 2017. No fighter, man or woman, has ever reached or exceeded that number.

Barbie

Unknown to many, Juarez moved to Southern California in the early 2000s and trained under South El Monte’s boxing wizard Ben Lira. For several years she learned the finer points of boxing and emerged one of the greatest female fighters of her generation.

Juarez also spearheaded the women’s boxing movement in Mexico which gained popularity and was often televised in that country when it was ignored in the USA and other countries.

Now women’s boxing has gained traction due to fighters like Juarez who willingly spoke to the media whenever asked. She advised other female fighters to never turn down media requests.

The queen has returned.

Boxing Addicts Weekend

If you love boxing, today and tomorrow will be crunched with boxing cards all over the world. Many will be televised.

Don King Productions brings Adrien Broner back to the limelight. Guillermo Rigondeaux is also competing on the same card. It begins in the late afternoon for West Coast fans. It can be seen on FITE.tv.

360 Promotions has a boxing event tonight (Friday June 9), at Commerce Casino with Callum Walsh versus Carson Jones.

PBC also has a Showtime Boxing card featuring undefeated light heavyweights Charles Foster and Ali Izmailov clashing in upstate New York.

Then on Saturday morning Matchroom Boxing has flyweights Sunny Edwards and Andres Campos vying for the IBF flyweight title and also female fighters Cherneka Johnson defending against Ellie Scotney for the IBF super bantamweight title. All on DAZN.

That is followed by the Golden Boy Promotions card at 5.p.m

In New York, a showdown between pound for pound fighters Josh Taylor and Teofimo Lopez takes place at Madison Square Garden. ESPN will televise. It should be very revealing.

Fights to Watch (Pacific Coast Time)

Fri. www.donking.com 3:50 p.m. Adrien Broner (34-4-1) vs Bill Hutchinson (20-2-4).

Fri. UFC Fight Pass 7 p.m. Callum Walsh (6-0) vs Carson Jones (43-15-3).

Fri. Showtime 7 p.m. Ali Izmailov (10-0) vs Charles Foster (22-0).

Sat. DAZN 11 a.m. Sunny Edwards (19-0) vs Andres Campos (15-0).

Sat. DAZN 5 p.m. Jaime Munguia (41-0) vs Sergiy Derevyanchenko (14-4); Shane Mosley Jr. (19-4) vs Demetrius Ballard (21-1-1); Mariana Juarez (55-12-4) vs Mayeli Flores (9-1-1).

Sat. ESPN 7 p.m. Josh Taylor (19-0) vs Teofimo Lopez (18-1).

Munguia / Derevyanchenko photo credit: Al Applerose

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Adrien Broner Returns to the Ring with an Attorney in the Opposite Corner

Published

2 days ago

June 8, 2023

Arne K. Lang

Adrien-Broner-Returns-to-the-Ring-with-an-Attorney-in-the-Opposite-Corner

Adrien Broner returns to the ring tomorrow (Friday, June 9) after a 27-month absence. He meets Bill Hutchinson at Casino Miami Jai Alai in Miami, Florida, in a fight slated for “10.” It’s a Don King promotion for sale at $24.99 on FITE TV and several other pay-per-view platforms.

Hutchinson – his friends call him Hutch — is a practicing attorney with offices in his native Pittsburgh and in Naples, Florida. Reading about him reminded me of Leach Cross. A very good lightweight during the early years of the twentieth-century, Cross was a dentist. His disparate occupations, as one would imagine, gave rise to many jokes. It was said of Leach that he drummed up business for his dental practice by rearranging the bridgework of his opponents. He could knock out a man’s tooth and replace it with a facsimile the next morning.

Adrien Broner, aptly nicknamed “The Problem,” is frequently in need of a good attorney. The same goes for Don King, a litigious sort who has sued and been sued many times. Even if Hutchinson never fights again, it wouldn’t be surprising if he crosses paths with Broner and/or King at some point again down the road. The principals made light of this in Tuesday’s press conference. “Dealing with lawyers is Broner’s forte,” wisecracked Don King. “After I mess you up, I’m going to hire you,” said Broner, looking sternly at Hutchinson.

On his web site, Hutchinson comes across as less of an attorney than a man who makes his living as a motivational speaker. “Currently,” it reads, “Hutch is a partner and leader in multiple businesses across divergent market categories. These businesses range from the automobile industry to event promotions, high end construction to hospitality, real estate to medical marijuana, and biologics/pharmaceuticals…Hutch has earned a reputation in each industry as an innovative problem solver who discovers new opportunities for growth.”

Okay, but can he fight?

Hutchinson’s current record (20-2-4, 9 KOs) is decent, but only nine of his 20 wins have come against opponents with winning records. None of his previous fights were slated for more than eight rounds.

There are levels to this sport as Mike Lee can ruefully attest. A finance major at Notre Dame, Lee was a successful businessman with a 21-0 record (against limited opposition) when he wangled a match with IBF super-middleweight title-holder Caleb Plant. That bout turned ugly in a hurry. Plant put him on the deck in the opening round and scored three more knockdowns before the butchery was halted at the midway point of the third round.

The guess is that Broner-Hutchinson won’t be quite as lopsided. Owing to legal problems, management issues, personal problems, and training injuries incurred by would-be opponents, Adrien Broner has been relatively inactive, missing all of 2020 and 2022. He’s 1-2-1 in his last four fights going back to July of 2017 with the lone triumph coming against unheralded Jovanie Santiago who took the fight on short notice. Broner won a 12-round unanimous decision, but was actually out-landed. His post-fight interview was more exciting than the fight, said CBS reporter Brian Campbell.

In truth, Broner (34-4-1, 24 KOs) hasn’t been the same fighter since his bout with Marcos Maidana in December of 2013. Broner was still standing at the final bell, but Maidana roughed him up en route to winning a lopsided decision. Entering that contest, Broner was 27-0 and had never been knocked down. After that bout, he became far less willing to initiate contact, relying more on his sublime defensive skills.

Broner vs. Maidana drew a reported 1.3 million pay-per-view buys, an impressive figure. Broner vs. Hutchinson won’t come anywhere close to matching those numbers (75,000 may be a stretch) and no matter his showing, Broner won’t repair his tattered image. A prizefighter cannot regain what he has lost against the Bill Hutchinson’s of the world.

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